The Keenland sales season is upon us. Baby horses  (yearlings/two-year olds) are embarking on the first step to becoming a champion racehorse; finding an owner. With all of the sales madness, and these horses about to hit the track in MSW races that you will probably be wagering on, I thought it was time to rank the ten best sires in the country right now. The rankings are based on a simple formula that I will not go into the details of becasue I wouldn’t want to bore you. I looked at all sires with North American runners who have made a combined total of 1500 starts within the last five years. This population is assumed to be the complete list of sires whose foals race in North America on a regular basis. The results were somewhat obvious, but there was one surprise.

10. Bernardini: Everyone had high expectations for this son of A.P. Indy even after he lost to Invasor. Well, he certainly hasn’t disappointed. He has a higher efficiency rating than both Tapit and Pulpit and has yet to kick his career into full gear. With two of the sires on our list no longer producing foals, this son of A.P. Indy becomes all the more important.

9. Smart Strike: He can get horses like Minorette then horses like the speedy Centre Court. He can hit home runs with horses like Curlin. There is very little that this horse cannot do. He almost snuck into the eigth spot on our rankings, but fell short because of stakes wins per starts. Either way, this horse is keeping American Racing interesting.

8. Empire Maker: Why did we let him go to Japan? Even though many of his runners are overseas now, he was still in the top ten in several major categories which landed him the eigth spot in this countdown. His yearlings are usually strikingly big and strong for their age. His runners are durable and consistent. Basically, his sons and daughters represent everything that American racing lacks right now. So, why exactly did we sell him?

7. A.P. Indy: This brings us to our first pensioned stallion; the great A.P. Indy. If you are surprised to see the legendary colt all the way at number seven on my list, you are not alone. As great as A.P. Indy is, there are horses who are producing stakes winners at a much higher clip. There are also horses who have been slightly more versatile than the legend has been. Either way, seventh is a respectable finish to a remarkable career.

6. Medaglia D’ Oro: Eleven grade one winners on all surfaces kind of says it all. He isn’t the type of horse that comes to mind when most think of versatility, but he is as versatile as they come. He has had success in two-year old races, three-year old races, and older horse races as well. The best thing about him is that he can hit home runs with horses like Rachel Alexandra, but hit plenty of base hits as well which is evindenced by his great stakes wins to overall starts ratio.

5. Dynaformer: I never realized how good this horse was until I started looking at his numbers. Though he was definitely a turf route sire, he could sire the occasional dirt miler. He wasn’t always the best horse for commercial american breeder’s, but he sired the types of horses Americans are accused of not producing anymore. It doesn’t seem like his male line will be carried very well, which makes his passing all the more heartbreaking.

4. English Channel: This is the big surprise on the countdown! So, how did a horse with a paltry 25K stud fee beat some of the biggest stallions in the industry? He gets stakes winning routers; many stakes winning routers. He is also very adept at getting these stakes winners on both surfaces; just look at V.E. Day. When I looked at his stats I wished that I were in the business of buying and selling racehorses because a 25K stud fee for this stallion is the bargain of the century.

3. Giant’s Causeway: The greaest son of Storm Cat has had quite the impressive stud career. He leads all sires in stakes wins contested at a mile or greater. This alone would have given him the number one spot if he didn’t sire the occasional 10K claimer. Nevertheless, Giant’s Causeway is worth every penny of his stud me in my humble opinion.

2. Kitten’s Joy: Second to Giant’s Causeway in stakes wins contested at a mile or greater, but fewer duds on the racetrack earned this son of Kris S. his runner up spot. His progeny earnings are also at the top ten, quite a feet for a sire of turf horses. If he was slightly adept at siring dirt horses he would probably be at the top of this countdown.

1. War Front: The numbers do not lie. No horse has better ratio of stakes wins contested at a mile or greater to overall starts. He has more than half the route stakes wins that Tapit has but only a third of the starts! If that stat doesn’t surprise you I don’t know what will. When the efficiency ratings were calculated, he won and it wasn’t even close. There is a chance that he regresses closer to the mean, but even if he does regress a bit, I don’t see him losing the top spot anytime soon. As bettors, we rarely gain any value from playing his already overbet foals, but they are so much fun to watch run.

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